


and i will dwell in the house of the lord for ever

by fullmetalruby



Category: UnDeadwood (Web Series)
Genre: Casual arson, Church Grim!Mason, Gen, Pre-Canon, UnDeadwood, i cant promise that this is good but its complete and thats about as much as i can do rn yall, non graphic being buried alive, the discord made me do it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-06 04:14:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21220385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullmetalruby/pseuds/fullmetalruby
Summary: A certain expectation starts to crop up for boys like Matthew, with criminal fathers and dirty clothes and bones just barely showing through bruised, papery skin. An expectation that they’ll turn out just the same as their fathers, the same kind of drunk and lying scumbags.Most of the time, they’re right.But Matthew and his gang? They thought they were real smart. One of the older boys even knew how to read. Three of the smaller kids would set fires, two of them would go make a fuss about it in the streets, and then Matthew would break into houses and steal things while everyone was preoccupied. And, in the end, it was Matthew’s idea to light up the church.





	and i will dwell in the house of the lord for ever

**Author's Note:**

> so uhh we were having a chat in the undeadwood discord about how everyone in that party is probably inhuman in some way and then someone suggested that Rev would be a church grim and so I looked up what a church grim is and uh  
um  
here y'all go  
WARNING  
although it's not graphic, it's heavily implied that there is domestic and sexual abuse, as well as someone being buried alive, in this work. If that doesn't butter your bread, turn back now and don't blame me for whatever you may find down there.

(They say Matthew Mason is--)

Matthew Mason had a hard life. Boys like him tend to grow up to be dead men, or not grow up at all.

Without fathers, without mothers, nobody to raise them but the older boys on the street. Groups of boys-- always boys, never girls, the girls were always adopted by good families in the nice part of town while the boys were left to die on the streets and in the mines and in the back alleys where even God didn’t think to look-- would hole up in whatever house didn’t already have anyone in it and they would protect their own from each other but there was only so much a band of 10- and 15-year-olds could do when the police came knockin’ for squatters.

His father was a drunk of a man, hardly ever around or awake and beating up on Mrs. Mason whenever he was. Matthew himself tried to be out of the house whenever Pa was there, because he only ever seemed to get in trouble when Pa could be assed to speak to him. Matthew’s mother died one night while Matthew was avoiding home, and Pa got strung up for the deed. Matthew’s baby sister-- if she had a name, he can’t remember it-- was sent to live with their aunt in Tennessee before Matthew even knew what had happened.

A certain expectation starts to crop up for boys like Matthew, with criminal fathers and dirty clothes and bones just barely showing through bruised, papery skin. An expectation that they’ll turn out just the same as their fathers, the same kind of drunk and lying scumbags.

Most of the time, they’re right. 

But Matthew and his gang? They thought they were real smart. One of the older boys even knew how to read. Three of the smaller kids would set fires, two of them would go make a fuss about it in the streets, and then Matthew would break into houses and steal things while everyone was preoccupied. And, in the end, it was Matthew’s idea to light up the church.

(--buried--)

Old Pastor Seacole was a nasty Danish man with wandering hands and the smile of a saint. He would preach the 7 heavenly virtues only to turn around and commit all 7 of the deadly sins in the same breath. His lust for any pretty young thing off the street. His pride in shining up that pretty silver tableware he uses in services. His greed when the collections basket goes straight into a bag inside his mattress.

The gang planned to set the place during a service on Sunday, so that everyone who cared would be trying to get away instead of back in. Everything went as they thought it out-- the kids set the sides of the building on fire, and then Joey and Dick, stationed inside, got everyone out and then blocked the entrance for “safety”. And Matthew snuck in the back, right into Pastor Seacole’s room, right to the mattress with the haul of a lifetime hidden inside.

(--in the church--)

Joey and Dick and Vincent and Louie and Grant all got away, having hopped on the last train out of Rapid City with the bag of nearly $100 and a silver candle holder, but Matthew isn’t so lucky. He was supposed to be the last one on the train, and he was slow enough for Sheriff Hardy’s men to pull him back.  _ Close the door _ , he yelled at them, and they did. The train sped away with all that was left of Matthew’s family on board, and he was being cuffed in the dust.

Pastor Seacole cursed and spat vinegar over his  _ life’s savings _ being stolen, but everyone in Rapid City knows that by the time anyone can hop on the train to follow those boys will be long gone, so Pastor Seacole has to settle for seeing Matthew locked up in the jailhouse.

Rapid City likes to pretend to be civilized and all that. So they hold him for a few weeks while they arrange a trial. They eventually move him out of jail, for no other reason than they can’t hold him there for good, and he gets chained to one of the pillars in Sheriff Hardy’s barn. Good, sturdy wood that hold the roof up just as well as it holds Matthew down.

_ Sorry, son _ , the Sheriff says. The Sheriff was a good man, the kind Matthew wishes was his father, and he knew better than most why Matthew and his gang did what they did. The Sheriff tells him the whole church ended up burning down. The fire went all the way down to the foundations and cracked them and even those would have to be replaced.

While Matthew waits he thinks. Never something he was really good at, but he’s been saving up his thinking points just sitting around. He thinks about how that money is going to feed the boys for months, and how Grant might finally get his first real Christmas with presents and everything.

Matthew isn’t quite so stupid as to think he’ll live that long. He knows what a judge will do to him. He’ll get the same hemp necklace as any other thief in this godforsaken town, and if he’s lucky they’ll stick a plank of wood in the ground above wherever they bury him. There’s a chance they might even bury him in the churchyard between his parents, though given that he burned the place down he’s not optimistic.

(--at the church--)

They come for him in the night.

Led by Pastor Seacole, two burly men Matthew’s seen before coming out of the church on Sundays take a pickaxe to the chains that hold Matthew and drag him away with a gag in his mouth before he can even think to call for Sheriff Hardy.

Rapid City looks different at night, in back alleys, and upside down thrown over a man’s shoulder. Matthew doesn’t realise where he is until the man holding him drops him to the ground where Pastor Seacole’s church used to stand. The building which was once a beacon of community and love of all kinds in this part of town is now little more than scattered rubble: the stones that paved the floor have been scorched, pulled up, and moved to the side, and charred and broken beams are strewn about the plot, but Matthew thinks he can make out where the new foundations are being set.

Huh. And here Matthew thought he was too old for the Pastor’s taste.

There’s two more big men waiting when Matthew looks up, and Pastor Seacole looks past them to the fresh-looking hole behind them where the cornerstone looks like it should go.

_ There’s a story back home, _ Pastor Seacole says, just loud enough for Matthew to hear. The old man doesn’t look any better under the light of the moon above, and if anything it just makes him look older and thinner than usual.  _ The first person buried on church grounds has to remain and protect the church from the Devil. Traditionally we bury dogs so that a person isn’t given that curse, but-- _ the old priest leers down at Matthew--  _ it’s as good a punishment as any for a thief. _

One of the burly men kicks Matthew into the hole--

(--under the church on Bell Hill--)

Matthew wakes.

The church is whole above his head, and he can hear someone reciting a prayer nearby in a voice unfamiliar to his ears. Younger, more confident, talking about the Lord and his sheep and something else Matthew vaguely remembers hearing before as a child.

The world is moving so slow. Like Matthew is seeing everything through a screen of molasses or oil. He looks down at his hands-- they look like he took a bath in coal dust and couldn’t even be bothered to shake himself down afterwards. He looks up towards where he knows, somehow, the pulpit should be. He doesn’t know the man standing behind the lectern, but anyone not Seacole is a welcome sight.

He hears hushed gasps and snickers behind him, and turns to see a few boys crouching at the back of the church-- two older, four younger. They look like brothers.

_ They say Matthew Mason is buried under this very church, _ one of the older boys whispers to the younger ones.  _ And if you listen close you can still hear him screaming at the old pastor to this day. _

Matthew looks back down at his fuzzy, spectral black hands.

And he screams.

**Author's Note:**

> "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.  
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."  
-Psalm 23


End file.
